Taxation & Estate Planning

Re-Opening the Estate

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

Drew Peterson, Chicagoland's most talkative murder suspect, is back in the news. Or, rather, his third wife, Kathleen Savio, is in the news. As you may remember, Ms. Savio "was found drowned in her bathtub shortly before the divorce settlement between her and Peterson was finalized." That's according to this article, which talks about how various relatives Ms. Savio are seeking to re-open her probate estate. (It seems like there is a battle over who should be in control of the re-opened probate estate, but that's another matter.)

When do you re-open a probate estate? When you discover property that needs to be probated. For instance, let's say that you administer a decedent's estate -- publish the correct notices, pay claims, distribute to the legatees, close the estate in court. But you then discover that your decedent had a $200,000 bank account in his own name that you didn't know about, and that never went through the probate process. In order to get the $200,000 to the legatees, you need to re-open the probate estate. The procedure for re-opening an estate is set forth in section 24-9 of the Probate Act.

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on February 08, 2008 (boomark / email).